


Airplanes

by 0bviousLeigh



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: F/M, Family Loss, why is there not more love for Yoko
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-18
Updated: 2016-11-18
Packaged: 2018-08-31 17:26:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8587378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/0bviousLeigh/pseuds/0bviousLeigh
Summary: The worst has happened. Yusho is gone.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Remember that song 'Airplanes' by B.o.B ft. Hayley Williams? What a meme.

Yoko counts to one hundred, then she gently untangles herself from her son. He sniffles in his sleep, but doesn’t wake up. Yoko’s heart breaks as she looks down at him, his face streaked with tears, bruises on his arms where he flung himself at the guardrail in the stadium. Yuya only fell asleep a few minutes ago, after crying nonstop since Yoko dragged him out of the stadium. She leaves his room and finally gets a look at the time. Midnight. It’s been five hours.

Yoko drags a hand through her hair and goes to the kitchen to make herself a cup of tea. The motions are mechanical, her head is in the clouds. She doesn’t register turning the stove on, and the sound of the kettle whistling makes her jump. She turns the stove off, afraid the sound has woken Yuya, but she doesn’t hear anything from her son’s room.

She glances at the clock again. 12:15. Fifteen minutes went by and she doesn’t remember them. Yoko takes the kettle to the sink and dumps the hot water down the drain. Forget tea, she needs coffee. There’s no way she’s sleeping tonight.

While waiting for the coffee, Yoko pulls a letter from her back pocket. She barely had time to read it that afternoon, when the LDS Employee brought it to her in the stands. Yuya didn’t notice the employee, he was so focused on the entrance to the stadium, sure that his dad would be there any minute. Yoko had realized what the letter was saying just as Yuya had taken off running, and since then her focus has been on her son. Now she rereads the letter carefully.

 

_‘Dearest Yoko,_

_If you are reading this, it means that the dimensional travel experiment has failed somehow and I am stuck in another dimension. I hope for a safe trip, but in case the worst has happened, please know that I did this because I want to help keep our world safe. Wherever I am now, I am thinking of you and Yuya, and I am doing my best to change the hearts and minds of the people here, to persuade them not to attack our world. We both know that Leo Akaba is a powerful man, and if I can’t remind him of our friendship, then I will take his power away by teaching a different way to those who follow him. We both knew that this mission was a dangerous one, but for the sake of everything we love, I will put my heart and soul into seeing it through._

_I miss you already, my Shooting Star. And Yuya…our beautiful boy. I hope someday he will forgive me for leaving without telling him why. I hope to God you never read this letter, but if you are…please, don’t tell Yuya where I am. I can’t imagine what it would be like for him to believe his father abandoned him, but the idea of a hostile dimension, bent on using dueling to conquer our world…Yuya is too young to be dragged into a war, and we both know that our blessing of a boy would want to be right on my heels, and would do anything he could to join me. Yuya may feel like I betrayed him, but I would rather that than have him try to follow me here and get hurt, or worse, captured by Leo. Yuya can hate me if he wants, as long as he is safe._

_And you can hate me too, Yoko. I hope you don’t, because I fully intend for you to never read this, but my dear, if I am not there now, please know that I love you and Yuya with all my heart. Whatever happens to me, you will always have my love and my trust. Raise Yuya well, with enough love to be from both of us. I will never stop fighting for a better world, and to find my way back to both of you._

_Always yours,_

_Yusho.’_

 

Yoko shoves the letter aside and holds her head in her hands. The worst has happened, the interdimensional travel system failed, and Yusho is stuck in another dimension. When Yusho told her about the other dimensions, and what Leo Akaba had done in one of them—created an army of brainwashed children—it made her sick with fear, both for her son and her husband. Because she knew Yusho and she knew he would want to talk to Leo, try to talk him out of this madness. She knew, but as worried as she was, she had been proud of Yusho, too. He was such a champion, always fighting for what was right, for anything that would make the world a happier place for their son to grow up in.

Yoko slams her hand on the table. “Selfish bastard,” she mutters, tears hot on her cheeks. Not that she’s any better. She gave her blessing to Yusho, told him to go ahead, be back to tuck Yuya in tonight. Now her husband is stuck in another dimension, and while she knew this was a possibility, she has no plan to move forward, no idea of how to explain this to her son.

Yuya. Yoko curls in on herself, thinking of her little boy. He was beside himself at the stadium, and he was inconsolable once they got home. He had screamed at her that they needed to go back to the stadium, dad would be there soon, he wouldn’t just leave them like this, and if he wasn’t coming then Yuya needed to uphold his honor.

His honor. Those had been his words. What did a boy know about honor, let alone fighting for it? Yuya didn’t deserve this. He was too young, too innocent, too happy for this to have happened to him. Would that beautiful child ever smile again? What would this do to him? How was Yoko going to wake him up tomorrow and tell him that it wasn’t a bad dream, that dad wasn’t coming home, and he might never again?

Yoko doesn’t know how much time passes, but she hears a knock on the door. She gets up, heart hammering in her chest. Could it be…?

She glances through the window. It’s Shuzo. Disappointment bitter in the back of her throat, she opens the door for her friend.

“I saw the light was on,” Shuzo says. He looks as tired as Yoko feels. “I’ve been searching the usual places, I didn’t find a trace of him.”

Yoko is confused, then she realizes that Yusho didn’t tell Shuzo about the dimensions. He thought Yusho had really gone missing, and had been looking for him all this time.

“Come in,” Yoko says, stepping back.

Shuzo looks around. “How’s Yuya?”

“Finally sleeping,” Yoko says.

Shuzo looks pained. “Poor kid,” he mutters. “I can’t imagine…”

Yoko leads Shuzo to the kitchen, taking the note from the table and putting it back in her pocket. The coffee is done, she pours it into two mugs and sets one down for Shuzo.

“Where’s Yuzu?” She asks.

“My mother is looking after her,” Shuzo says. “She wanted to come over and be with Yuya, but I talked her out of it.” He takes a sip of the coffee and chokes.

Yoko takes a sip and spits it out. She messed this up big time.

“Fuck,” Yoko hisses. “Of all the stupid things.”

Shuzo takes her cup. “I’ll make more,” he says gently.

Yoko sits with her hands clasped and her eyes closed while Shuzo rummages around the kitchen. After a while, she hears Shuzo tell her to eat and she opens her eyes. He’s made a plate of strawberries and banana slices, two of Yoko’s favorite things.

Yoko manages to eat a bit while the coffee bubbles away. Shuzo eventually sets a new mug in front of her and digs out the milk from the fridge.

“What would I do without you?” Yoko asks as Shuzo sits across from her.

“I’ve asked myself that question about you and Yusho so many times,” he says. “You’ve helped me so much over the years. With the school, with Yuzu, with life…it’s my turn to help you.” His eyes take on a burning passion. “I’ll be out there tomorrow morning, looking for him. He’s got to be around somewhere, I’ll find him Yoko, I swear—”

“You won’t,” Yoko says tiredly. “He’s…he’s not here, Shuzo.”

Shuzo looks flabbergasted. “Do you…know where he is?”

Yoko rubs her forehead. “No,” she says, and means it. “But I know he…he went after Leo Akaba.”

Shuzo sputters. “Leo? That moron?! What on earth for?”

Yoko closes her eyes. “I’m not entirely sure,” she says, the lie cutting her like glass, “But somehow Yusho found out that Leo is up to nothing good. He was going to find and talk to Leo, but he didn’t think he’d…he thought he would make it back.”

“He told you this?” Shuzo asks.

Yoko balls her hands into fists. “Yes. And I let him go. What an idiot,” she growls, “I should have told him it was too dangerous, I should have called him out on the harebrained idea, I should have told him to get his head out of the past and in the present with his son! God, what am I going to tell Yuya?!” She breaks off, sobbing. She claps her hands over her mouth, afraid Yuya will hear.

Shuzo moves to kneel beside her. He puts his hands on her shoulders and looks him in the eye. “This isn’t your fault. It sounds like Yusho was doing what he always does—what he thought was the right thing. And with Leo involved, I don’t think anything could have stopped him. You can’t ask yourself what if. You can just deal with what’s happening now. You and Yusho taught me that, and right now what you have to do is find a way to let Yuya know that his dad is a brave and honest man. There are going to be people who say terrible things about Yusho in the coming days…” Shuzo’s voice breaks. “But Yusho wouldn’t let it affect him, and we can’t either. We both have to be there for Yuya now, but you need to let him know that you’re not going anywhere. Yusho may be away, but you’re here, and Yuya is here.”

Yoko gulps and takes a deep breath. It’s true, all of it. Yuya is going to hear terrible things about his dad being a loser, a quitter, and other horrible things. Yoko thinks that will cut Yuya deeper than the loss of his father—the idea that Yusho isn’t the hero Yuya always thought him to be.

“You’re right,” Yoko says. “You’re right, I have to find a way to explain this to him.”

Shuzo nods. “You know him best, so you think it over.”

Yoko nods. “You should go,” she says quietly, “You need to be there for Yuzu.”

Yoko stands and walks Shuzo to the door. Before he leaves, she hugs him tightly. “Thank you, dear friend,” she says.

“Any time,” Shuzo says.

The sun is rising. Yoko goes to the kitchen, finishes her coffee, and cleans up. She changes her clothes, brushes her hair, and gets a family picture from her personal photo album. She’ll give it to Yuya once she’s done her best to explain things to him (without giving too much away), and urge him to remember the good things about his dad.

For now, Yoko lets herself back into Yuya’s room. He’s still asleep, and Yoko lays down beside him. She’ll be here for him when he wakes up, but until then, she has some planning to do.

**Author's Note:**

> I never see enough love for Yoko in the show and I think she needs more love in the fandom, too. I mean, she lost her husband to another dimension and the show does a great job of showing that Yusho is, really, the love of her life. She had to suddenly raise Yuya by herself and we know Yuya was devastated by the loss of his father, but what about Yoko? How did she deal?
> 
> I HAVE SO MUCH RESPECT FOR THIS WOMAN.


End file.
